Eliminate the burden (and costs) of maintaining a workers’ comp state forms library

When does maintaining an up-to-date library of workers’ compensation state forms become too great of a bureaucratic burden for your claims adjusters or administrative staff? The most straightforward response is this: The more states in which your organization handles workers’ comp claims, the greater the challenge of staying on top of form revisions and additions.

Time and resources could certainly be allocated to more important activities. In the International Risk Management Institute, Inc. (IRMI) article Workers Compensation Bureaucracy Drives Costs, Mark Walls and Kimberly George cite training and education as two such examples:

One of the goals of workers compensation regulations is to ensure that injured workers are paid benefits in a timely manner at the correct rate and that they have access to appropriate medical treatment,” write Walls and George. “There was a time when payers had offices located in most states with adjusters handling only that state. Now, with most payers utilizing multistate adjusters, payers must be constantly training and educating their adjusters to ensure that they understand all of the nuisances of the different states that they handle.

For organizations looking to reduce the bureaucratic burdens their adjusters face, Origami Compliance offers a secure, API-based solution that integrates with any claims management system to provide immediate access to a single-source, up-to-date library of state and federal workers’ comp claim forms. Without leaving the claims system, an adjuster can quickly find the right form based on state or category. And when that form is selected, form fields automatically populate with claim data and a PDF version is generated.

The solution cuts down on the time adjusters spend on the following tasks:

Tracking down the correct version of state forms

Rekeying data previously entered in the claims management system into forms

Correcting errors that result from manual entry of claim details

This solution also means adjusters no longer have to go through the time-consuming process of making sure they have access to the most up-to-date versions of state forms. They can then spend more time on higher-value activities—ones that directly impact claims outcomes and costs.

Let workers’ comp claims adjusters do the high-value work they were hired to do

Should claims adjusters really be spending their time searching across the workers’ compensation pages of state websites and checking forms for changes? Most would answer that question with a resounding “No.” Doing so is simply not the best use of time for knowledge workers like claims adjusters.

In the Harvard Business Review article, Make Time for the Work That Matters, Julian Birkinshaw and Jordan Cohen summarize the results of their 3-year study that examined how to increase the productivity of knowledge workers. “Eliminate or delegate unimportant tasks and replace them with value-added ones,” they write. “By simply asking knowledge workers to rethink and shift the balance of their work, we were able to help them free up nearly a fifth of their time—an average of one full day a week—and focus on more worthwhile tasks with the hours they saved.”

The question is, of course, is how to go about identifying and eliminating unimportant tasks. Birkinshaw and Cohen suggest taking a close look at the day-to-day activities that are “(a) not that important to either you or your firm and (b) relatively easy to drop, delegate, or outsource,” as their research points to the fact that “at least one-quarter of a typical knowledge worker’s activities fall into both categories.”

These low-value tasks can then be sorted into one of three categories:

Quick kills (tasks that can be immediately eliminated without experiencing negative effects)

Off-load opportunities (tasks that can be delegated with minimal effort)

Long-term redesign (work that requires restructuring or overhaul)

Because of the risk of penalties, the submission to states of mandated workers’ compensation forms cannot be classified as a “quick kill.” At the same time, neither is a “long-term redesign” required.

Improving adjuster efficiency and accuracy with an integrated forms solution examines, in detail, the “off-load opportunities” Origami Compliance provides when it comes to finding the correct version of state forms, the duplicative work of rekeying claim details previously entered, and the elimination of errors that come with manual data entry. With less time spent on these administrative activities, adjusters have more time to focus on return-to-work strategy, communications with employer/employee/medical providers, and making judgments and decisions on their files.

How Origami Compliance keeps adjusters on top of WC forms changes

For adjusters, there is no simple way of knowing when state-specific workers’ compensation forms are updated or when new forms are added. Monitoring changes and continually updating a forms library accordingly is yet another administrative task that presents “off-load opportunities.”

To ensure that the Origami Compliance forms library, which consists of more than 5,000 state and federal forms, is kept up-to-date, automated processes continually monitor state websites for changes to forms-related pages. The Origami Compliance team is immediately notified of changes and can check to see if updates are necessary. These automated processes are supplemented by scheduled, manual checks of each state’s forms.

When a change or addition is identified, the form is updated or added. Tags and formatting are also put in place to ensure that mapped claims data populates forms in the way the state requires. The forms are then tested and verified before the updated version is released. Adjusters can choose to receive a notification when forms have been updated.

Depending on the specific states, or the number of states, for which an organization is handling workers’ comp claims, the time saved can be significant. In 2018 alone, Origami Compliance processed approximately 1,000 form updates.

The impact of an integrated forms solution

Paper-intensive, inefficient, and error-prone processes can’t be wished away. But they can be eliminated by providing adjusters with access to technology that helps them work more efficiently and accurately, thus freeing them up to spend time on higher-value activities.

Regardless of the claims management system your organization uses, Origami Compliance is an integrated, easy-to-use workers’ comp forms solution that reduces the amount of time it takes adjusters to find the most current form, eliminates the need for them to rekey data into forms, and minimizes the likelihood for incurring penalties that result from submitting outdated forms or forms that contain errors. As a result, adjusters can spend more time focused on areas that contribute to a reduction in the cost of claims, as well as improved outcomes.